Q: I'd like to
start my own business, but I'm in a recession
emergency-behind on my bills, savings gone and no start-up
capital. I have been unable to make enough doing temp service work,
etc, to cover basic expenses. What are the best recession-proof
businesses?

A: Some businesses
actually do well during recessions; they're
"countercyclical." For example, as both business and
consumer debt mounts in a recession and companies need to collect
every possible dollar they're owed, debt collection agencies,
companies that specialize in repossessing items and bankruptcy
attorneys are at their busiest.

If you're good on the telephone, probably the most feasible
of this type of business is a collection agency. The American Collectors
Association offers a CD-ROM that will provide you with some
training, and you can either buy or lease collection-specific
software from a number of companies.

If you're down to emptying your piggy bank, for less than
$100, you can paint street numbers on curbs for homeowners or
provide household cleaning services. One specialized kind of
cleaning service that requires little more than a pooper-scooper
and some plastic bags is cleaning up dog dung from people's
yards. Some people are earning more than $50,000 a year doing this.
These may not be businesses you want to do indefinitely, but they
may provide you with some income to help you pay the bills and save
some money for a different business.

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During hard times, stress is higher, and therefore people's
health suffers, causing a greater need for health care.
Traditionally, health care was considered recession-proof; however,
during the '80s, health-care providers took their hits, too.
Still, health-care-related businesses like medical coding and
medical transcription can do well. But these do require training
that takes time and money.

Other businesses that tend to do all right during a recession
are:

Repair services, when it's less costly to repair something
like a computer than buy a new one

Secretarial services and bookkeeping for small businesses for
which outsourcing their work is less expensive than having an
employee do it

For many people, starting a business in the midst of an economic
storm has led to success, probably because the lack of slack leads
to more disciplined, well-thought-out marketing and spending
decisions.